Five-Finger Grass: (Potentilla Canadensis, Rose Family)
Common Name: Cinque-foil
Medicinal Part: The Root and Leaves
Description: This perennial plant has a procumbent stem from two to eighteen inches in length. The leaves are palmate, leaflets obovate and flowers yellow on solitary pedicels.
There are two varieties of this plant, the P. pamilla which is very small and delicate, flowering in April and May and growing in dry, sandy soils and the P. simplex, a larger plant, growing in richer soils and flowering from June to August.
Five Finger is common to the United States growing by roadsides, on meadow banks and waste grounds and flowering from April to October. The root is the part used. It has a bitterish, styptic taste and yields its virtues to water.
Properties and Uses: It makes an excellent mouthwash and gargle. The herb five-finger was at one time in high repute as a medicine, and was accredited with almost miraculous powers; but it is only a mild astringent with tonic powers, nearly resembling the leaf of the raspberry, and usable for the same purposes. The common mode of exhibition is by infusion.
Dose: Steep a teaspoonful of the plant into a cup of boiling water for a half-hour. Drink half cupful upon retiring at night hot or cold or take a mouthful three times a day. One of two cupfuls may be taken. Of the tincture, 1/2 to 1 full fl. dr.